American Beauty
by Morganabel
Summary: Written by Bent137 and ChristineCS. AU. Paris deals with the type of competition that comes tall, dark and handsome.
1. Chapter One

**Title: **American Beauty

**Chapter: **One  
**Authors:** Bent137 and ChristineCS

**Disclaimer**: Neither of us claims ownership on any of the Gilmore Girls' characters mentioned. 

**Summary:** AU. Paris deals with the type of competition that comes tall, dark and handsome.

**Author's Note:** Yes, this is loosely based on the movie _American Beauty_.

*

Paris Gellar shifted positions in her chair for what had to have been the hundredth time. She looked up at her companion and pointed the tip of her pencil to the paper in front of them. "You call this an article, Louise?" Paris rolled her eyes and allowed herself to scoff a little as she reached for her red correcting pen.

Louise Grant rolled her eyes, flipping her frosty blonde hair behind her shoulder. "Well, does it not contain words?"

Paris shot her a glance before uncapping her pen. "Words, Yes. Sense, well that would be a resounding no." Paris moved her pen over the paper, changing words here and there, separating run on sentences, and capitalizing what needed to be capitalized.

"I wasn't aware I had to be grammarly correct," Louise replied absently, checking out the new arrivals coming in the door. "That's your job as editor."

Paris chose not to answer that question and turned her head towards the door to see what Louise was looking at. Her mother and father stood there. Her mother looking overbearing and cold as always, and her father looking uncomfortable.

"Hello? Are you done yet, Paris?" Louise asked. "Because I would like to continue my social life within the next lifetime."

Paris frowned and turned her attention back to Louise. "Fine, yeah you can leave. I'll see you tomorrow."

Louise almost commented on Paris' odd behavior but then decided not to test her good fortune of being released from the day's lecture. "Fine. See ya, Paris." She stood up and made a beeline for where Tristan DuGrey and Michael Stevens were, she wasn't one to test her luck. 

Paris waited until the other girl had left before addressing her parents. "What do you want?" she asked looking at her mom.

Evelyn Gellar smoothed back her dirty blonde hair before replying to her daughter. "We're here to make an appearance, honey. The most influential families are here tonight and we want to make sure you don't screw up!" She turned to her husband, who looked uncomfortable and meek. "Sheldon, stand up straight, the DuGrey's are watching."

Paris rolled her eyes as she folded up Louise's article and slipped it into her tiny handbag. "Fine, I'll mingle. That's what you want isn't it?"

Evelyn reached out and fixed her daughter's hair. "Yes, and smile. You'll repel people with that scowl of yours."

That only made Paris scowl more, "Fine." She walked past them and scanned the room for someone she knew.

The event was probably the most boring thing she'd had to attend in her life. Yet she mingled, and she tried to smile. She even found a few people she could hold an intelligent conversation with. Paris contemplated the evening as she walked into her room, slipping off the restricting heels on her feet and tossing them lightly into her closet. She grabbed her pajamas off of their hook and walked into her bathroom. She emerged moments later, teeth brushed, face washed, and clothes changed. She hung the dress she'd been wearing earlier in a garment bag to be dry cleaned before stepping out onto her balcony.

The cold cement numbed her bare feet and the wind whipped her hair in her eyes. She sighed looking out over the west side of the Gellar estate. She could make out Tristan's house from here, barely thanks to the manor next door, but the lights in its signature tower gave it away. She had thought maybe that was where his room was. It seemed like him to want to be on top of the world looking down on everyone. She smiled a little at that thought then turned around and walked back inside her room, shutting and locking her balcony doors behind her. She then pulled the curtains closed and climbed into bed.

Jess Mariano sighed, the dark night coming up empty through his telescope. It was too bad, because tonight he longed for escape tonight. Tonight. The first night back into his parent's cold house and presence. It had been nice, though he'd never admit it to anyone ever, to live in the warm and loving town of Stars Hollow. But, like everything else in life, nothing lasted forever. 

He swiveled his telescope to the right, spying the neighbor's house. A flash of moment caught his eye and narrowed in on it. That's when he saw her. She wasn't beautiful by any conventional means but she had presence. And loneliness, a kind that seemed to mirror his own. When she went inside, he felt this inexplicable sense of loss.

*

Louise leaned against the wall as she took a sip of her water, and looked sideways at Paris. "What's wrong with you? Did you hear about the scandal-heavy?"

Paris cast a glance at Louise out of the corner of her eye and adjusted her books, digging into her locker for another pen. Her other one had just started to run out of ink. "Nothing's wrong, and did I hear about what?" She looked at Louise confused.

Louise sighed, for Paris was one always out of the loop. "Your neighbor."

"Mr Murphy?" she asked as she shut her locker. "What about him? He lives practically alone except for his maids and is about eighty-nine."

"The Marianos," Louise said, agitated. "God, don't you even know who your own neighbors are?"

"I've never really cared. Neither side has given us the time of day." Paris contemplated it more as she walked a bit away from her locker waiting for Louise to follow her. "Wait. I think I met the Mariano's once. I was only ten if I remember right. They were two very strange people."

She followed Paris, "Yes, well their son is back."

"They have a son?" Paris paused outside the doorway to Mr. Medina's class.

"Yeah. He's our age, apparently they booted him out a few years ago," Louise paused thoughtfully. "No one knows where. My bet's a mental institute."

Paris opened the door to the classroom and walked in, "Frankly Louise, I don't really care." She stopped suddenly and Louise ran into her back. Paris couldn't take her eyes off of the dark haired boy sitting in her seat. She quickly regained composure and stalked over to him. She glared down at him tapping her foot impatiently on the tiled floor. "Excuse me, you're in my seat."

Jess studied her under hooded eyes. "Mr. Medina told me that there was no assigned seating." She was getting angry, he could tell. The girl was kind of cute when she was angry. "And, frankly, I don't see any mark of propriety on the seat. Thus making it, not your seat."

Paris fumed, and though she tried to hide it it showed. He eyes widened, then narrowed with an intense look and her nostrils flared a bit, "I have been sitting in that seat since the first day of class. It is in prime position to utilize the acoustics of the room providing in optimum hearing of lectures with an unobscured view of the blackboard for taking notes." She huffed a little and stamped her foot on the tiled floor as though to make a point.

He was in hot water, but this could be fun. "Has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, other people would like the prime position. Especially people who just arrived and need the position to catch up on all the work they have missed. It might just make it easier on those people."

Paris frowned, it was clear the imbecile was not about to move. She'd just have to be sure she got to class extra early the next day. "I will relinquish it for today, but you should be plenty caught up tomorrow. Consider this your one favor." She slid into the seat behind him, glancing at Louise who was sitting next to her.

Louise leaned over and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I told you. Mental institute."

Paris leaned towards her and whispered back, "That is him? That is the Mariano kid?"

Louise rolled her eyes, "Did I tell you about any other new kids?"

Paris went quiet and sat back straight as class began. She kept staring at the back of his head wondering how she could have missed that before.

*

The hall was fairly quiet; everyone else had left almost 10 minutes ago. Paris approached her locker and opened it. She pulled two books and a notebook out of her locker and stuck them in her bag. She counted her books and notebooks and came up with one missing. She sifted through them again wondering what she had missed. It was her English notebook. She dug into her locker looking for it, but her locker was nearly empty anyways and it wasn't there. Mentally cursing herself she zipped up her backpack and slammed her locker door shut. She looked up and down the hall, no sign of Louise, which meant most likely she'd be a little late meeting her. Probably making out with some jock by the locker rooms. Paris slung her backpack over her shoulder and hurried to Mr. Medina's room. She was disappointed when she got there however, the door was shut and the lights off, he'd already left for the day. Paris turned and went back to her locker to wait for Louise. She set her bag at her feet and leaned against the wall to wait. She watched the few people that were left head for the doors. She was surprised when she saw Tristan DuGrey come from down the other hall and open his locker; he pulled something out and shut it quickly, as he headed for the door. Paris cast her glance the other way down the hall and was relieved to see Louise's familiar blonde head bowed down examining her nails as she walked towards Paris.

Louise looked past Paris' shoulder to watch Tristan's retreating figure. "That boy looks just as good going as he does coming." She shifted her attention reluctantly to her friend. "So anyway, I learned some more stuff about your new boyfriend."

Paris cast Louise a scathing glance, "He's not my boyfriend." She pushed off from the locker and began to walk towards the doors.

Louise rolled her eyes, as she followed Paris out the door. "Crush. Whatever. Same difference, Paris."

Paris turned to look at Louise, "I do not have a crush on him!" She pulled out her keys and walked towards her car. "My place again?"

Louise groaned. "Again? We just studied yesterday." She waved off the comment before Paris could break into a tirade. "Fine. But if we have to do this can't we make it, like, a group effort?"

Paris gestured towards Louise's bag, which she knew contained her cell phone. "Fine, call Madeline see if she wants to come," Paris said stopping to wait for an answer.

Louise shrugged. "Sounds fine to me."

"Alright call her see if she needs a ride," Paris walked over and leaned against her car to wait for Louise to finish.

Louise pulled out her navy blue cell phone, chosen so that it'd match her uniform, and pressed the button that'd automatically hook her up with Madeline's number. "Mads?"

"Louise?" Madeline Lynn replied, snapping her gum. "Why are you calling? I'm only on the other side of the parking lot."

She held her breath and counted to five before continuing. "We're doing a study session at Paris'. Don't forget my Yummy Berry lip gloss and my Mental Black nail polish."

"But Louise you all read...Oh!" Madeline remembered the code. Yummy Berry was Tristan's name and the second one was harder. But rumor was that the new kid was in a mental institute and he had black hair! Ah, yes. "Got it. Consider it passed along."

"Thanks," Louise replied before shutting off her cell phone. It'd be so much easier if Paris would allow co-ed studying instead of doing all this sneaking around.

Paris looked at Louise and snapped at her, "So is she coming? Does she need a ride?"

Louise shook her head. "Yes, she's coming. No, she doesn't need a ride."

"Great," Paris said opening her door and climbing into her car, "Get in." She put the keys in the ignition and turned it on.

**To Be Continued**…


	2. Chapter Two

**Title: **American Beauty

**Chapter: **Two  
**Authors:** Bent137 and ChristineCS

**Disclaimer**: Neither of us claims ownership on any of the Gilmore Girls' characters mentioned. 

**Summary:** AU. Paris deals with the type of competition that comes tall, dark and handsome.

**Author's Note:** Yes, this is loosely based on the movie _American Beauty_.

*

Paris maneuvered her car up her driveway and pulled to a stop in front of her house. Another familiar looking car was parked there as well. Paris looked up towards the door and there sat Madeline, Tristan and the new kid. She looked over at Louise, "Louise, what are they doing here?"

Louise managed the look of feigned shock. "Well, I guess they were just as eager to study as you and I." 

Paris rolled her eyes and looked at Louise, "Since when are you eager to study? Wait. Don't answer that." Paris shut the car off and opened her door. She stepped out pulling her bag along behind her. She looked over at the trio. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

            Jess smirked, "We're here to learn too. We're so eager to study, like Louise."

Paris glared at him, "Were you invited? I didn't think so. Neither of you are welcome!" She pointed at Jess and Tristan alternately. "Now leave."  
  
  
Tristan smirked and looked up at Paris defiantly, "Now, now Paris. Is that any way to treat guests?"  
  
Paris glared at him, "Oh I'm sorry, would you like something to drink? Oh I forgot we have nothing for you. Now leave Tristan!"  
  
"Paris! You wound me!" Tristan faked a wince as he clutched at his blazer. "Why do you not want me here? Is it that you can't resist my charm?"  
  
"What charm DuGrey? Did it ever occur to you I might actually want to study which is pretty near impossible with you around? Because lord knows what you'd do you're such a goof off!"

  
Paris turned on Jess, "You stay out of this! I don't even know you for god sake. Don't come waltzing in here uninvited expecting star treatment. That may have been what you got at that institution but you're far from welcome here."

Jess raised an eyebrow, "Maybe you're the one that should be in the mental institute because I received my invitation for studying here.  You have such nice friends, too, helping the new kid like that."

Paris turned to Louise suspiciously, "What invitation? I was there, with you, you called Madeline. I heard no such talk of Tristan and Mental Boy here!"

Louise shrugged and studied her nails. Hmmm, she had at least another week before she should schedule for a manicure.

Madeline remained blissfully oblivious, studying the lapels of Tristan's Chilton jacket. 

Paris groaned, "Fine. But I swear if you step the tiniest bit out of line, you're gone! Both of you."

"Us?" Madeline and Louise squeaked, looking up sharply from their tasks.

  
Paris rolled her eyes, "No not you. Dumb and Dumber over here." Paris pointed at Tristan and Jess and grabbed her backpack then began walking up her steps.

Jess leaned towards Tristan, "Why are we Dumb and Dumber when they don't even understand her when she talks?"

Tristan leaned towards Jess, "It's because we have something they don't."

"We should sue her for that," Jess said, crossing his arms and nodding. "I bet we could wring a lot out of her for sexual discrimination." 

She led the group into the dining room and set her things at the head of the table. She requested that the maid bring in five glasses of water.

"So do we like, have to study _now_?" Louise questioned, cringing at the sight of books. 

"Well this is a study group," Jess commented. "I suppose we could always just watch the movie instead." 

"Oh!" Madeline said, perking up. "That's a great idea. See there are _Good Will Hunting_ and that pie movie for math. And that yummy Colin Firth movie for English..._Pride and Prejudice_, oh and _Shakespeare in Love_ if we have to learn about his life." 

"And _Jurassic Park_ for science," Jess added dryly. "I think this girl is on something." 

"On _to_," Madeline corrected him. 

"Yeah, whatever."

Paris looked back and forth at Jess and Madeline for a moment before turning to Madeline. "Madeline, although those were some good reference suggestions, I believe we would be better of actually reading the books and doing the studying and work ourselves. Film makers don't always have everything correct, often times because of time restraints, but others simply because of poor research." Paris paused and glanced at Jess, "You should take note of that as well, and maybe it will come in handy in the future. You can't always believe everything you see in the movies. I'm not just talking about special effects, but often times scenes from books are condensed, or cut out all together. You never know what is going to be on a test or a quiz." 

Tristan, whom had remained silently observing until this point, tapped the side of his lips with the eraser on his pencil thoughtfully then pointed it at Paris, "She's right, after all, this is Chilton we're talking about." 

Paris smiled at Tristan, "Thank you Tristan. So why don't we get started with our Calculus."

"I'm hungry," Louise spoke up. "I can't concentrate on an empty stomach." 

"Neither can I," Madeline piped in. "And I just heard my tummy rumbling."

Paris groaned. Just then the maid returned with the five glasses of water. She placed them down in front of the five teens as Paris said, "Could you please bring us a bowl of pretzels and some fresh fruit?" 

"Yes ma'am," the maid said and hurried towards the kitchen. 

Paris turned back to the group, "There, she's bringing food. Are you happy now?" 

"Hey I was happy in the first place," Tristan said.

"We're not caring," Louise told him. "Do the pretzels have salt? I'm not supposed to have salt."

Paris rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure Louise, but if they do then you can just have fruit. Now, Calculus, Page 157." Paris flipped her book open and then looked around at the group, waiting for them to do the same.

"If I eat fruit," Louise cut in. "Then I'll go over my set limit for each food group. Fruit won't do."

Paris stared at Louise. She gritted her teeth, "Then why don't you, and Madeline go to the kitchen and find something you will eat." 

Tristan watched with amusement until now, "Hey, uh, don't cancel the pretzel and fruit order."

Louise fixed an offended expression on her face. "But that's where the servants go! I can't go down there." 

"Or she may return with servant's disease," Jess pointed out, slouching in his chair. 

"Oh no!" Maddie's eyes widened. "What's servant's disease?"

"Apparently when little private school girls get their brains sucked out and replaced with air," Paris gritted out. "Now I'm giving you five minutes to gather food, and if you're not back in exactly five minutes or less I will personally dismember you."

"Won't that cut into the studying time?" Jess asked, as Louise, Madeline and Tristan scurried for food.

Paris ignored his question, refused to glare, picked up her highlighter and started rummaging through her notes. She could still feel his gaze on her, so she slammed down her highlighter. "What? Don't you have an insatiable hunger in your stomach to feed?" 

"Nope, I ate before I got here."

Like other people should have. "Fine." She returned to her highlighting.

"Fine," he mimicked. Bastard. 

*

Louise followed Tristan into the food pantry as Madeline stood outside the door, saying she was looking out for the Servant's Disease, to warn them so that they'd have time to protect themselves. They had decided to leave at that, since neither of them (or Paris's time limit) had the patience for explaining to Maddie the meaning of sarcasm.

"Do you really have a limit for how much food you can eat for each group?" Tristan asked as he pulled down a box of graham crackers from the shelf. "Or did you make that up to piss Paris off?"

Louise tore her eyes off the food in front of her and looked at him, "A little of both. I have a preferred amount, but I'm not going to flip if I go one or two pieces of food over it. I'm flexible." She gave him a small, coy smile. "_Very_ flexible."

"You're a dirty girl, Grant," Tristan made an tsk-ing sound with his tongue. "So why did you invite me and Mariano?"

"To unnerve Paris," Louise answered matter-of-factly. "He does that, you know?"

"Jess? I didn't notice," when one was in the room with three girls in skirts, one wasn't really thinking about the other guy in the room. "And you're not the least bit worried about your English grade suffering because of your matchmaking practices?" 

She grabbed a box of saltless crackers and twirled around to face him. "Oh, don't worry about me, DuGrey. I have my own plan for improving my English grade." With that, she breezed past him and out of the pantry.

Tristan shook his head and grabbed a bottle of sparkling cider on his way out. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know what that was.

**To Be Continued…**


	3. Chapter Three

**Title: **American Beauty

**Chapter: **Three  
**Authors:** Bent137 and ChristineCS

**Disclaimer**: Neither of us claims ownership on any of the Gilmore Girls' characters mentioned. 

**Summary:** AU. Paris deals with the type of competition that comes tall, dark and handsome.

**Author's Note:** Yes, this is loosely based on the movie _American Beauty_.

_From Bent: _I hope you guys like this chapter. I had a hard time figuring out where to start, but once I did it became fun to write. It may seem slow, it even does to me, but we're setting up the rest of the story still. Chris? Anything to add?

Louise's pen dropped onto the table, the clattering causing everyone to look at her. "I can't stand it any more Paris," she brought her fingers to her temple, massaging in circles. "We've been at this for hours."

Hours? Paris glanced at her watch, "Louise, it's only been an hour and fifteen minutes since we got here, and five minutes of that was spent appeasing your stomach." More like 10, but I'm feeling generous.

Tristan looked back and forth between the two, "Actually Paris, I could use a break too. Maybe we could just take a ten minute break before we start working on out Literature work?" She wants a break, and he wants a break, and we all want a break. Boy, is the voice in my head getting snarkier or what?

Paris looked at him, "Fine. Ten minutes, no more, no less, beginning now."

"Fantastic," Madeline said jumping up, "Is it alright if I use your bathroom Paris?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead."

Louise turned to Paris, "Could we just stop for the day, and do more tomorrow?"

Paris stared at her, "By tomorrow you will have forgotten our train of thought, besides, there will be more to think about after classes tomorrow."

"But isn't it safe to assume that if we'll have forgotten things by tomorrow that this is useless as there's no way we'll remember them for the test next week?"

"But the more we study the better the chances are that you will be able to retain some of the information."

"I'm sorry," Jess spoke up, "But I'm inclined to agree, besides I really need all the help I can get."

Paris studied him, torn between the habit of glaring, and the instinct to thank him. Her jaw twitched. He actually supported me, weird.

"Fine," Louise stood up, "Whatever, I better go find Mads before she gets lost." She stalked off. Madeline probably already is lost, Paris thought bitterly. She really needed to stop it with the attitude, even her inner voice sounded cynical.

"I'm going to go outside for a cigarette," Tristan said turning to Jess, "Want to come?"

"No thanks," Jess looked up at him, "If Chilton's as hard as you say then I probably won't be smoking as much, or maybe more due to stress. I'll have to get back to you on that."

"Okay man," Tristan said, turning to leave.

"Don't leave your butts all over the ground," Paris called after him. She waited for an innuendo, but none came. Apparently Paris was undeserving of that sort of attention.

When the front door slammed shut the room became quiet. Paris looked at Jess, and Jess looked at Paris, and for a moment they just looked at each other, but then each went to reading over their notes and books in a tense silence.

*

"Excuse me, uh, Paris?" Jess' voice broke the silence.

Paris looked up sharply, at first he thought she was angry, but soon realized she was simply shocked at the sudden noise. "Yes?"

"Something in my notes doesn't quite make sense and I was wondering if I could compare it to yours?" This is where she'll shoot me down and tell me I don't deserve it and if I messed something up then too bad.

"Oh, I guess so."

He tried not to look shocked as she passed her notebook to him. He smiled at her before quickly turning his eyes to the page. Why was she suddenly bearable? He spotted his mistake and quickly fixed it on his own notes. "Thanks," he handed the notebook back, "just a simple word mix-up. It's amazing the difference those little words make."

"Yeah," Paris agreed, "Sometimes all the difference."

There was a moment of silence while Jess debated with himself before finally deciding to bite the bullet. "It's amazing how well you do considering the people with whom you study."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Madeline isn't the brightest light bulb in the case, and Louise has the attention span of a flea."

For a moment he thought he'd really done it now but her face relaxed and a small grin graced her features. She was almost pretty when she relaxed. Whoa, where'd that thought come from. '_Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear._' Rory Cochrane's voice rang through his head from it's residency in the pop culture area of his brain.

"Without me they wouldn't pass," Paris was saying, "they have no discipline. It is kind of nice to have someone else with a milligram of intelligence at the session."

Maybe it is time to extend the olive branch of friendship, after all, Paris is the type of person thats better a friend than an enemy.

"I know you don't like the whole coed studying thing, but if you ever feel the need for someone to debate the finer points of physic with, rather than which lip gloss goes better with whom at the school," he referred to an earlier conversation between Louise and Madeline. "I guess I'm trying to say that I'm up for it."

She smiled again. It was kind of creepy. "I'll keep it in mind," she said before her usual mask of annoyance settled on her face as the front door reopened and shut.

*

"Paris," her father said as he entered the room where they were studying. He stopped short at the sight of everyone. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were entertaining."

"We're just studying," Paris explained. "Is there something you needed."

His attention drifted away from the blonde girl whom was sitting on her left and back to his daughter, "I just wanted to remind you about dinner tonight. You need to be ready by 6."

She glanced at her watch, "Okay father, We'll finish up and I'll begin getting ready."

"Thanks Princess." He looked at the faces around the table again, all were familiar but one, a dark haired boy. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met."

"Jess Mariano, sir," Jess said standing and offering his hand.

Paris' father took it, "Ah yes, you live next door correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Well it was nice to meet you," Paris' father turned to the other teenagers, "and it was nice to see you all again."

"Likewise Mr. Geller," Louise purred.

He nodded and began baking out of the room, he backed into the wall and looked embarrassed as he turned and hurried out.


End file.
